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Ryuichi Sakamoto
Ryuichi Sakamoto (Japanese: 坂本 龍一, Hepburn: Sakamoto Ryūichi; January 17, 1952 – March 28, 2023) was a Japanese musician, composer, keyboardist, record producer, singer and actor. He pursued a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of the synth-based band Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO). With his YMO bandmates Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi, Sakamoto influenced and pioneered a number of electronic music genres. As a film score composer, Sakamoto won an Academy Award (Oscar), BAFTA, Grammy and two Golden Globe Awards.
Sakamoto began his career as a session musician, producer, and arranger while he was at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in the mid 1970s. His first major success came in 1978 as co-founder of YMO. He pursued a solo career at the same time, releasing the experimental electronic fusion album Thousand Knives in that year, and the album B-2 Unit in 1980. B-2 Unit includes the track "Riot in Lagos", which had a significant influence on the development of electro, hip hop and dance music. He went on to produce more solo records, and collaborate with many international artists, including David Sylvian, DJ Spooky, Carsten Nicolai, Youssou N'Dour, and Fennesz. Sakamoto composed music for the opening ceremony of the 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympic Games, and his composition "Energy Flow" (1999) was the first instrumental number-one single in Japan's Oricon charts history.
Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983) marked his debut as both an actor and a film score composer; its main theme was adapted into the single "Forbidden Colours" which became an international hit. His most successful work as a film composer was The Last Emperor (1987), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Original Score, making him the first Japanese composer to win an Academy Award. He continued earning accolades composing for films such as The Sheltering Sky (1990), Little Buddha (1993), and The Revenant (2015). On occasion, Sakamoto also worked as a composer and a scenario writer on anime and video games. He was awarded the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the Ministry of Culture of France in 2009 for his contributions to music. Sakamoto died on March 28, 2023 from colorectal cancer at the age of 71.
Ryuichi Sakamoto was born on January 17, 1952, in Tokyo. His father, Kazuki Sakamoto, was a well-known literary editor, and his mother, Keiko (Shimomura) Sakamoto, designed women's hats. He began taking piano lessons at age 6, and started to compose at age 10. His early influences included Johann Sebastian Bach and Claude Debussy — whom he once called "the door to all 20th century music." He also said, "Asian music" (Javanese Gamelan) "heavily influenced Debussy, and Debussy heavily influenced me. So, the music goes around the world and comes full circle."
He discovered jazz and rock and roll as a teenager, when he fell in with a crowd of hipster rebels. He was also influenced by jazz musicians such as John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman, and by rock bands such as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. He described his political leanings during his time as a student as “not a 100 percent Marxist, but kind of”. At the height of the Japanese student protest movement, he and Yasuhisa Shiozaki along with dozens of other classmates barricaded themselves in their high school principals's office, seeking changes to the way the school was run.
Sakamoto entered the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in 1970, earning a B.A. in music composition in 1974 and a M.A. in 1976, with special emphasis on both electronic and ethnic music. He studied ethnomusicology there with the intention of becoming a researcher in the field, due to his interest in various world music traditions, particularly the Japanese, Okinawan, Indian, Indonesian and African musical traditions. He was also trained in classical music and began experimenting with the electronic music equipment available at the university, including synthesizers such as the Buchla, Moog, and ARP.
In 1975, Sakamoto collaborated with percussionist Tsuchitori Toshiyuki to release Disappointment-Hateruma. In 1977, Sakamoto began working as a session musician with Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi. Together, the trio formed the electronic band Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO) in 1978.
In mid-1978, Sakamoto released his first solo album Thousand Knives of Ryūichi Sakamoto, with the help of Hideki Matsutake—Hosono also contributed to the song "Thousand Knives". The album experimented with different styles, such as "Thousand Knives" and "The End of Asia"—in which electronic music was fused with traditional Japanese music—while "Grasshoppers" is a more minimalistic piano song. The album was recorded from April to July 1978 with a variety of electronic musical instruments, including various synthesizers, such as the KORG PS-3100, a polyphonic synthesizer; the Oberheim Eight Voice; the Moog III-C; the Polymoog, the Minimoog; the Micromoog; the Korg VC-10, which is a vocoder; the KORG SQ-10, which is an analog sequencer; the Syn-Drums, an electronic drum kit; and the microprocessor-based Roland MC-8 Microcomposer, which is a music sequencer that was programmed by Matsutake and played by Sakamoto.
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Ryuichi Sakamoto
Ryuichi Sakamoto (Japanese: 坂本 龍一, Hepburn: Sakamoto Ryūichi; January 17, 1952 – March 28, 2023) was a Japanese musician, composer, keyboardist, record producer, singer and actor. He pursued a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of the synth-based band Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO). With his YMO bandmates Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi, Sakamoto influenced and pioneered a number of electronic music genres. As a film score composer, Sakamoto won an Academy Award (Oscar), BAFTA, Grammy and two Golden Globe Awards.
Sakamoto began his career as a session musician, producer, and arranger while he was at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in the mid 1970s. His first major success came in 1978 as co-founder of YMO. He pursued a solo career at the same time, releasing the experimental electronic fusion album Thousand Knives in that year, and the album B-2 Unit in 1980. B-2 Unit includes the track "Riot in Lagos", which had a significant influence on the development of electro, hip hop and dance music. He went on to produce more solo records, and collaborate with many international artists, including David Sylvian, DJ Spooky, Carsten Nicolai, Youssou N'Dour, and Fennesz. Sakamoto composed music for the opening ceremony of the 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympic Games, and his composition "Energy Flow" (1999) was the first instrumental number-one single in Japan's Oricon charts history.
Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983) marked his debut as both an actor and a film score composer; its main theme was adapted into the single "Forbidden Colours" which became an international hit. His most successful work as a film composer was The Last Emperor (1987), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Original Score, making him the first Japanese composer to win an Academy Award. He continued earning accolades composing for films such as The Sheltering Sky (1990), Little Buddha (1993), and The Revenant (2015). On occasion, Sakamoto also worked as a composer and a scenario writer on anime and video games. He was awarded the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the Ministry of Culture of France in 2009 for his contributions to music. Sakamoto died on March 28, 2023 from colorectal cancer at the age of 71.
Ryuichi Sakamoto was born on January 17, 1952, in Tokyo. His father, Kazuki Sakamoto, was a well-known literary editor, and his mother, Keiko (Shimomura) Sakamoto, designed women's hats. He began taking piano lessons at age 6, and started to compose at age 10. His early influences included Johann Sebastian Bach and Claude Debussy — whom he once called "the door to all 20th century music." He also said, "Asian music" (Javanese Gamelan) "heavily influenced Debussy, and Debussy heavily influenced me. So, the music goes around the world and comes full circle."
He discovered jazz and rock and roll as a teenager, when he fell in with a crowd of hipster rebels. He was also influenced by jazz musicians such as John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman, and by rock bands such as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. He described his political leanings during his time as a student as “not a 100 percent Marxist, but kind of”. At the height of the Japanese student protest movement, he and Yasuhisa Shiozaki along with dozens of other classmates barricaded themselves in their high school principals's office, seeking changes to the way the school was run.
Sakamoto entered the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in 1970, earning a B.A. in music composition in 1974 and a M.A. in 1976, with special emphasis on both electronic and ethnic music. He studied ethnomusicology there with the intention of becoming a researcher in the field, due to his interest in various world music traditions, particularly the Japanese, Okinawan, Indian, Indonesian and African musical traditions. He was also trained in classical music and began experimenting with the electronic music equipment available at the university, including synthesizers such as the Buchla, Moog, and ARP.
In 1975, Sakamoto collaborated with percussionist Tsuchitori Toshiyuki to release Disappointment-Hateruma. In 1977, Sakamoto began working as a session musician with Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi. Together, the trio formed the electronic band Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO) in 1978.
In mid-1978, Sakamoto released his first solo album Thousand Knives of Ryūichi Sakamoto, with the help of Hideki Matsutake—Hosono also contributed to the song "Thousand Knives". The album experimented with different styles, such as "Thousand Knives" and "The End of Asia"—in which electronic music was fused with traditional Japanese music—while "Grasshoppers" is a more minimalistic piano song. The album was recorded from April to July 1978 with a variety of electronic musical instruments, including various synthesizers, such as the KORG PS-3100, a polyphonic synthesizer; the Oberheim Eight Voice; the Moog III-C; the Polymoog, the Minimoog; the Micromoog; the Korg VC-10, which is a vocoder; the KORG SQ-10, which is an analog sequencer; the Syn-Drums, an electronic drum kit; and the microprocessor-based Roland MC-8 Microcomposer, which is a music sequencer that was programmed by Matsutake and played by Sakamoto.
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